The Smock Frock: The Journey from Fieldwork to the Pages of Vogue

The smock frock was a nineteenth-century utilitarian overall worn by male manual labourers and particularly associated with agricultural work. However, by 1915, the garment had appeared on the front cover of American Vogue as an item of female clothing. This article will investigate how this transition happened and the factors that enabled a garment that was a stigmatised marker of social class to bridge the gap between high fashion and workwear, also menswear and womenswear, and thus enter the fashionable discourse. The article will trace why these changes happened, discussing the relationship with the aesthetic and rational dress movements, and, in particular, the importance of the actress Ellen Terry and her daughter Edith Craig, in the transformation of the garment. It will also consider how the gendered interpretation of a garment might alter over the course of time, and the influence that this had on its function.